The Things She Says by Kat Cantrell Read Free Book Online Page B

“What?”
    Nobody kept track of those milestones. “Nothing. Are you sure you don’t want breakfast?”
    “Are you sure you want to marry someone you aren’t in love with?”
    The car veered toward the center line and he overcorrected, shooting the passenger-side tires past the white line of the shoulder, jouncing them both until he got the wheel under control. Precisely the reason he stayed behind the camera—so he couldn’t be caught off guard. “Seems like you’re the one practicing ESP. What makes you think I’m not in love with Kyla?”
    “Please.” She snorted. “I don’t need ESP to know you’re not in love with her. Even if you are from Hollywood, you wouldn’t be flirting with me if you were. You’d remember the first time you kissed her. The first time you held her all night. You wouldn’t be able to stand being separated from her, yet this car’s got a V-8 and you’re barely driving the speed limit. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math.”
    He bit back a nervous laugh. He’d been angling to get her smart mouth back. Just not with that much punch. “Would you like to drive since I’m doing such a poor job?”
    “Deflection. Yet another obvious factor. You don’t even like to talk about Kyla.”
    While he might prefer to stay behind the camera, VJ never let him retreat. Women usually gave up trying to engage him after several unsuccessful rounds. VJ didn’t have to try—she was naturally engaging. With renewed respect, he eyed her. “Maybe because my relationship with her is private.”
    “Or because you don’t have much of a relationship. Marriage is forever. You should only marry someone you’re desperately in love with. Someone you can’t live without.”
    Actually, he’d be ecstatic to be desperately in like with Kyla. They were going to be spending a lot of time together, after all, filming the movie and doing public appearances. At some point, he should probably tell Kyla he didn’t hold the affair with Guy against her. He still stewed about it occasionally, but only because Hansen was an idiot.
    “That’s not love, that’s passion. Which is all hormones anyway and I can’t think of a worse reason to marry someone. Passion dies.”
    And when it died, it ruined everything.
    “Are you looped?” she asked. “Love and passion are tied together and the only reason to marry someone. Clearly, your education is lacking in the romance department.”
    She stroked his arm and it wasn’t accidental. His eyes unfocused as heat radiated from the contact of her fingers. His groin tightened. Again.
    Not only did VJ keep him engaged, she poked at something elemental inside. In the past, attraction had led to satisfaction, not this raw yearning for...more.
    “Oh, I see,” he said when his mouth stopped being too dry to talk. “You’re an expert on romance.”
    “I am, actually.” She seemed pleased with his insight. “We have hours to kill until we reach Dallas. I’ll be happy to give you some instruction.”
    Romance instruction at the hands of Victoria Jane. The idea should have been hilarious. It wasn’t. “How did you get to be an expert on romance? Walt Phillips?”
    “As if. Romance novels.”
    “Books?”
    “Books are a perfectly legitimate method for learning. That is why they use textbooks in school.”
    Now he had that image stuck in his head. VJ in a classroom wearing a school uniform and clutching a tattered paperback with a half-naked Viking on the cover. Naturally, that progressed to imagining VJ half-naked. The camera would love the color of her skin and capture the perfect lines of her body with a reverence he’d seldom experienced behind the lens.
    “Go for it, then,” he said. “I can’t wait to learn about romance according to VJ.”
    “Well.” She sat up in the seat, instantly animated. “Romance has stages. A progression. You can’t dive right into bed.”
    Really. Who says? VJ might need an education of her own.
    With that thought,